Prayer & Inspiration

Monday of Holy Week is a day of waiting. Just as in the Christmas carol we sing, “Let every heart prepare Him room”, we must also prepare our hearts for the sorrows of the Sacred Triduum.

Even though Monday can be the most hectic day of the week, don’t forget to carve out some quiet time for yourself today. Get up a little earlier to do the readings for the day. Find a quiet place to sit at lunch and read your favorite spiritual book. Gather your family to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet or the Rosary at the end of the day. These are all excellent examples for integrating the spirit of Holy Week into your day.

This beautiful prayer in honor of the Blessed Mother originated in Ireland, probably in use since the 8th century. At one time Pope Pius IX (1792 – 1878) granted a special indulgence to the faithful in Ireland who recited it devoutly.

St. Thomas Aquinas is well-known as a brilliant philosopher and theologian, the most celebrated in the Church. In addition to being a scholar, he was also a remarkable poet. And Aquinas puts to rest the commonly believed notion that to be intelligent, or “book-smart,” diminishes piety. Aquinas followed both his head and his heart, and he did so gloriously. Along with disputing with other philosophers on the nuanced theological controversies of day, he fostered the tenderest of devotions to the Blessed Mother.

This is a quite shocking inscription which can be read while contemplating the skeletons of thousands of Capuchin friars beneath of Our Lady of the Conception Church in Rome.

It is a reminder, of course, of the quick passage of life on earth and of our mortality. If you have heard the expression “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die,” maybe it has occurred to you that we are afraid of our death because we know that we are not prepared. It’s also because we are afraid of leaving what we know and are familiar with, or maybe we don’t truly have faith that there is life after death.

There was a soft voice inside me suggesting I should visit and venerate the relics of Saint Maria Goretti during her tour in the United States. I took action and told my husband we had to go. He was on-call for work that weekend, but he took a chance, and we went with my two kids.

St. Teresa of Avila (1515–1582), the great Spanish Carmelite nun, mystic, and Doctor of the Church, most famous for her classic spiritual writings, The Interior Castle and The Way of Perfection, also wrote the famous poem below, Nada Te Turbe.

The millions of people who gathered to see Pope Francis in Latin America showed without a doubt that most Latinos are still Catholic. The Holy Father was received with all the honors and privileges, and treated as a spiritual celebrity. Being from Latin America, the Pope’s visit made me follow the news and stay attentive to his words, more than any other news.

Now that he is back in Rome, I would like to share what I learned from the Pope through his message and actions during his visit to South America:

The devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help is an important patroness in many cities and countries worldwide, such as Haiti and the Philippines. Latin America knows her too as Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro, or, Our Lady of Perpetual Succor.